By Christine Johnson on 19-02-2012
Mercury Insurance, a multi-line insurance organization operating in 13 states, is offering a new commercial auto insurance product it says uses technology to enable its independent agents to more easily rate, qualify and issue new business.
Brea, Calif.-based Mercury Insurance said the new product, which features standard ISO coverage forms, is being rolled out to independent agents in the sates where it writes business.
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By Dustin Mitchell on 15-02-2012
We are into a new year and with it comes a glimmer of hope that insurers will be heard (at least to some extent) in asbestos bankruptcy proceedings. However, two new decisions from the Ninth Circuit are a mixed bag, on the one hand allowing insurers standing to be heard on a debtor’s reorganization plan, but holding that insurance policy anti-assignment clauses and pre-petition agreements to arbitrate are not enforceable when they “conflict” with the purposes of the bankruptcy code.
The Ninth Circuit in In Re Thorpe Insulation, (January 24, 2012) __ F.3d _ (12 C.D.O.S. 939),
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By Christine Johnson on 10-02-2012
Insurers have to balance strategic initiatives with operational and tactical changes in order to succeed in 2012. That’s the “call to action” presented by the research and consulting group Strategy Meets Action (SMA) in the latest in its Insurance Ecosystem Research Series.
“You can’t focus on one more than the other,” says Deb Smallwood, founder of SMA. “We asked insurers to think more holistically. You can have separate strategies for areas such as social media, mobile technology, or customer communication, but you need to bring them together. Innovation is where insurers need to focus. How do you le
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By Dustin Mitchell on 08-02-2012
For the past 20 months, each Saturday, I have posted on an issue that impacts public insurance adjusters. Many of my past posts have featured great success stories and interesting details of the claims public adjusters are handling nationwide, but so many more public adjuster stories need to be told. One of the best events where public adjusters can share their stories with others and learn how to better handle their claims is the Windstorm Insurance Conference®. This year is no exception.
Merlin Law Group’s own Chip Merlin, the outgoing president of WIND®, will welcome the attendees to the conference, but he won’t be the only Merlin Law Group attorney who will be addressing the crowds. Me
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By Christine Johnson on 03-02-2012
West Virginia must hold coal operators accountable for any negligence or misconduct to prevent another Upper Big Branch, the worst U.S. coal mine disaster in four decades, the states special investigator of that deadly 2010 explosion told lawmakers this week.
The investigator, J. Davitt McAteer, said legislators should look to a recent Pennsylvania measure that aims to hold mine managers responsible for accidents. West Virginia law now looks to the mines foreman, but McAteer said higher-ups make the decision that determine safety and production.
I know of no mine foreman who ever bought a longwall, or a continuous miner for that matter, McAteer said, referring to machinery that can cost tens of millions of dollars.
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By Dustin Mitchell on 29-01-2012
As per reports, it has been revealed that some of the clauses in the Affordable Care Act are going to be changed during the upcoming US elections. There is both good and bad news attached to the changes of the act.
The best part would be that it would get compulsory for health insurers to provide a summary of all the health plans to customers so that they could know for what they are shelling out money from their pockets.
The bad part of the story is that health insurers have said that this summary, which is also known as Cliff Notes, would prove to quite costly to them.
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